R. V. Williams and the Mourne Press.] Signed ('Richard Rowley.') and inscribed ('R. V. Williams') copy of 'The Big Grey Man | A Legend of Mourne', with 'Illustrations after woodcuts by Lady Mabel Annesley'.

Author: 
'Richard Rowley' [pseudonym of the Ulster poet Richard Valentine Williams (1877-1947), proprietor of the Mourne Press]; Lady Mabel Annesley (1881-1959), illustrator and artist
Publication details: 
[Newcastle, Co. Down.] 'Published by the Mourne Press for the author.' [Slug on last page: 'BANBRIDGE CHRONICLE PRESS'.]
£320.00
SKU: 21822

[12]pp, landscape folio. Sewn with red thread. The words 'The Big Grey Man' on cover and title-page in red ink, rest of pamphlet in black ink. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. A 48-line poem, in eight six-line stanzas, spread over three rectos, signed at end 'Richard Rowley.' Inscribed on title-page: 'Mrs. Brown. | With best wishes for Christmas | from | Mr. & Mrs. R. V. Williams. | 1942.' Six bucolic illustrations reproduced from woodcuts by Annesley, including one on cover. Colophon on recto of last leaf, with printers' slug on otherwise-blank reverse. First stanza reads: 'Above the Cairns of Goward, | The dark-draped mountains loom, | And in the depths of Goward | Is dug the Heroes' tomb; | There in the Place of Echoes, | They wait, wait in the gloom.' Scarce: only two copies on COPAC, at Trinity College Dublin and the National Library of Scotland.